G-L,
I received a private request to share the posting below prompted by
questions raised by Mr. Omar Gaye both of which appeared at the Post. In
response to the request, I have taken the liberty of re-posting them on the
G-L. I hope that Omar wouldn't mind having his message displayed here
together with my response to some of his very pertinent questions.
_______________________________
Omar,
I have been out of the civil service system for over a decade and thus may
be out of tune with the budget process. The initial process starts with
what is called a 'Call Circular' issued by the Department of State for
Finance under the hand of the Permanent Secretary as the 'Accounting
Officer' of the Department responsible for the Budget. I understand that
the function of Accounting Officer has been transferred to SoS. Whether
this affects who signs the call letter, I cannot say. Anmyway, this
circular sets out the parameters to guide individual Departments in the
preparation of their individual budgets. These revenue/expenditure
parameters are influenced by several players and events of past budget
performances. The IMF and the WB have increasingly influenced the shape
and form of the Call Circular and thus the budget preparation exercise.
The end result of this part of the budget exercise is what is called the
Budget Estimates divide into two parts: the recurrent and development
expenditure. This document looks more like what you would expect a budget
to look like ( i guess this is what you were expecting to see) rather the
Budget Speech which introduces the budget which is accompanied by a bill.
That's why the opening statement of the SoS is a motion ..I beg to move
that ' The Bill entitled an Act to provide for the services of The Gambia
for the period...'be read a second time.
The bill will be legislated when the motion has been considered by
Parliament at the current sitting and approved. As I write, they are
discussing the budget bill.
I alluded to the commencement of the budget process as starting with the
Call Letter which we used to issue around the 15 August to all Ministries.
The executinve, legistative and judicial branches are all required to
submit their budget proposals throught their respective Ministries to
Finance. Each Department/Miomistry is invited to Finance to defend their
proposal.
The budget speech introduces the substantive part of the budget. I am not
sure that the State of the Union is a Budget statement but rather an
assessment of the overall achievement of the US government in the past year
and the policy direction that the Administration wishes to pursue in the
year ahead and to outline its legistative agenda etc. Anyway, the budget
process in the US is different from the typical parliamentary system. For
our purposes we will stick with what I believe obtains in the Gambia.
You are right, the document looks like a policy document, and that's
exactly what it is. Chapter 13 is standard. It gives budget assumptions,
revenue projections etc. for parliamentarians and people who would normally
not have access to the Budget proper to apprecaite the assuptions behind
the numbers, and most importantly to send a warning to all and saundry that
the revenue expected would determine the expenditure pattern in the comming
year with a set limit for acceptable fiscal deficit. More detailed
presentation of the assumptions etc can be found at the back of the Budget
Estimates.
Omar, this, in a nutshell, is what I can recall of the process. I have
little doubt that there has been omissions. In spite of this, I hope it
gives you the gist of the process and offer some clarification. I invite
experts to suppliment and/or correct any information contained in this
post.
Sidi Sanneh
----Original Message Follows----
From: Omar Gaye <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [>-<] Background to Budget Speech Discourse
Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 06:58:42 -0800 (PST)
People:
I am sure that Koto Sidi, Yus and all the others did not take the trouble
to bring us the 2003 Budget Speech for our reading pleasures only. What is
expected from us is an intelligent, and sometimes heated discourse about
this document. To set the tone, we might want to have some background
knowledge on budget and government. If anyone could help answer these
fewquestions, please help educate us so that we can submit informed
opinions on this.
For starters, I looked up the defintion of 'budget' on Webster: a statement
of the financial position of an administration for a definite period of
time based on estimates of expenditures during the period and proposals for
financing them.
This brings me to these questions:
-- Why is this called a budget speech and not a budget bill? Is it because
it is the speech that intoduces the bill?
-- Is the bill then legislated on, or was that done beforehand?
-- When and how are the government expenditures (budget) formulated? Does
it originate from the executive and then passed by the House?
-- If this is not a bill, what is it? Is it like, say, the US State of the
Union address to congress? If so, why is it not given by the president?
-- Most of this document looks to me more like a policy document than a
financial statement, except chapter 13. Is that the purpose of it?
Koto Sidi, I am humbly requesting your help on these questions. The very
learned forumites are all asked to help.
Omar
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